I recently purchased factory HID housings for my 99 Mercedes E-class. I am really disappointed with the light output!!!!
I find myself constantly comparing my HID output to other cars on the road. It seems that my Mercedes lamps have far less output than other factory HID setups!!.
I pulled the bulbs to have a look. They are Osram D2r bulbs. I have heard that an OEM Phillips is brighter than the OSRAM. Also, it seems that the lamps have a pinkish tint to them. is that the osram bulb?
Is there anything I can do to get more light on the road? is it just a cruddy design by mercedes?
Have the headlights aimed properly. I don't believe that Philips HID is brighter than Osram; it's just that Osram capsules SEEM to produce less blue (or more yellow) than the Philips. The lumen output rating for the two brands is the same.
I have played around with aiming the lights, and I have yet to be satisfied.
On lit roads in the evening, you cannot even see any light (from the headlights) on the road.
it seems that you get decent (not great) distance vision, but there is very little light in the foreground. Beore you tell me that my lights are aimed at the sky, they are not. 1st, I aimed them 2" down at 25 feet. then I even tried 6-8" down at 25 feet just to see if it would light the foreground better. NO LUCK!
All I really seem to have are 2 hot spots straight ahead, and then the light output dims drastically below the hot spots.
Well, I think ekooke is right, Osrams do seem yellower compare to Philips, yellow lights blend in easier with street lights thus seem dimmer. I'm pretty sure that outputs of them are similar, just that bluer stands out more. All my friends tell me that my old blue-ass 7000k HID is brighter than my new OEM X5 HID, and we all know that's just a bunch of BS...
Mercedes lights are pretty good in my opinion. I think your problem is that the HID bulb is getting too old. You said that they have a pinkish hue to them, that means that they are at the end of their life (and probably at 50% of full illumination). HID bulbs start out white, shift to blue, then purple, and finally purple/pink. I think if you bought a new set of Philips D2R bulbs you will be satisfied.
Well, I think ekooke is right, Osrams do seem yellower compare to Philips, yellow lights blend in easier with street lights thus seem dimmer. I'm pretty sure that outputs of them are similar, just that bluer stands out more. All my friends tell me that my old blue-ass 7000k HID is brighter than my new OEM X5 HID, and we all know that's just a bunch of BS...
Interesting.... this is the first posting of worn out (2000+) HID bulbs. I had a similar aged Osram bulb but that was just dim - no appearant color change. But Osrams are much less prone to color changes.
In addition to replacing bulbs, I'd recommend a thoughout wash of internals!
